| 释义 |
▪ I. ‖ kow-tow, kotow, n.|kaʊˈtaʊ, kəʊˈtaʊ|
Also kow-too, ko-too, -tou, ka-tou, koo-too.
[Chinese k῾o-t῾ou, f. k῾o knock + t῾ou the head.]
The Chinese custom of touching the ground with the forehead in the act of prostrating oneself, as an expression of extreme respect, submission, or worship.
1804Barrow Trav. China (1806) 213 The Chinese were determined they should be kept in the constant practice of the koo-too, or ceremony of genuflection and prostration. 1817Ellis Jrnl. Emb. China 213 Lord Macartney's performance of the ko-tou was asserted. 1845Athenæum 22 Feb. 193 He felt some reluctance when called upon to perform the ko-tow. 1864D. F. Rennie Brit. Arms N. China 232 note, The kowtow is the Chinese obeisance indicating extreme respect. 1898W. G. Gulland Chinese Porc. I. p. xxiv, Lord Amherst..would not perform the kow-tow (kneeling) before the emperor. 1920Blackw. Mag. Aug. 225/1 The conventional bowing or kow-tow position. 1966Listener 29 Sept. 443/2 Not even the emissaries of the Pope could escape the Great Kow-tow—the ceremony involving the three kneelings and nine prostrations before the throne of the Chinese Emperor.
b. fig. An act of obsequious respect.
1834Fraser's Mag. X. 230 Thus speaks the high-priest of fashion, and the beau monde perform the koo-too with all imaginable submission. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1872) VI. xvi. ix. 235 Voltaire from of old had faithfully done his kowtoos to this King of the Sciences. 1905[see hewgag]. 1972Times 21 Oct. (Hongkong Suppl.) p. i/6 Peking has referred officially to Hongkong's shameful colonial status only once since President Nixon's dignified kowtow and the belated entry of the people's republic into the United Nations.
▪ II. kow-tow, kotow, v.|kaʊˈtaʊ, kəʊˈtaʊ|
[f. prec. n.]
intr. To perform the kow-tow. Also transf.
1863Fraser's Mag. Dec. 709/2 With one dash of the brush a clever artist at once hits off all the characteristics of his subject, whether it be a bat or moth in the gloaming, or a humble cricket kow-towing to a lordly mantis perched on a blade of grass. 1864D. F. Rennie Brit. Arms N. China 232 He kow⁓towed to him in proof of his anxiety to follow his advice and give up opium. 1892Mission Herald (Boston) Aug. 326 The literary graduates kneel and kotow before each one of these shrines. Ibid., A tien, or cushion, to kneel on in kotowing. 1907Westm. Gaz. 12 Nov. 14/1 The degrading custom of high native Ministers of the Crown kowtowing. 1966D. Forbes Heart of Malaya xi. 129 Miss Khan kowtowed to the laughing monk. 1966Listener 29 Sept. 444/1 An envoy of the Tsar who arrived in Peking in the sixteen-seventies to discuss Russo-Chinese differences refused to kow-tow to the Emperor.
b. fig. To act in an obsequious manner.
1826Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. xii, The Marquess kotooed like a first-rate Mandarin, and vowed ‘that her will was his conduct’. 1883Harper's Mag. Mar. 578/2 The doctor kowtowed to him.
Hence kow-ˈtower; kow-ˈtowing vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also kow-ˈtowism, the practice of kow-towing.
1836T. Hook G. Gurney II. 55 Hull, who watched his worship with an almost Koo-too-ing kindness. 1837― Jack Brag viii, The little group in the full exercise of Koo-too⁓ism. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxxvi, It was nothing compared to the bowing and kotooing. 1874A. C. Maclay Let. 1 May (1886) 47 Then followed a tempest of kow⁓towing that beggared description. 1961Spectator 8 Sept. 313 They regard the Russians as..kow⁓towers to the West. |
